New Christmas Traditons
by mockinjay14
Summary: It's Katniss' first year decorating for Christmas by herself and she doesn't have the motivation to do it... until her best friend Peeta Mellark shows up offering to help her. I don't own The Hunger Games or any of it's characters.


New Christmas Traditions

I sit down on my couch with a mug of hot chocolate. We spent the whole day decorating the Christmas tree I picked out this year. Gale always helps me. He's a good boyfriend. He plops down next to me with a mug of coffee. He hates chocolate. I learned that when I made him a chocolate birthday cake with the help of my best friend Peeta… Okay, Peeta made the cake and I supervised. I can't do much in the kitchen, and I almost never cook.

I love Christmas. I love it so much I'd keep the decorations up all year if I could. I tried that one year but it pissed my neighbors off. One evening, late in the summer the whole street marched over to my house like an angry mob and told me I could either take the decorations down myself or they would. So on July 28th I finally took my Christmas decorations down. I had no choice. I didn't want them taking down my things, something could've been broken. That's how much I love Christmas. I take a sip of my hot chocolate and smile. It's almost Christmas!

My phone rings interrupting my fantasy of how today should have went. The way it went every year for three years. Gale always helped me set up for Christmas but this August we broke up. I don't usually mop about the break up - it was my decision - but I'm just not sure what to do today since Gale won't be helping me decorate for Christmas. I've never done this on my own. My family lives on the other side of the country in Florida so they can't help me. And I can't call Gale up and ask him to help me. That would be extremely awkward and cruel to him.

I pick up my cellphone with a sigh and answer. "Hello?"

"Katniss!" Peeta says in a worried voice. "There's an emergency!"

"Call 911!" I stand up. "Why are you calling me?"

"Come outside," He says. "I'm in your driveway."

So I open the front door and find Peeta standing in front of his brother's truck. I run to him. "Peeta what's wrong?" I question. "Is somebody hurt?"

"Oh," He laughs. "No, nothing like that."

"Then-"

"I just need your help bringing this Christmas tree in."

"Into your house?" I cross my arms. "But you hate Christmas. You don't own a single decoration."

"It's for your house," Peeta rolls his eyes. "And I don't hate Christmas, I just haven't had any good experiences with it."

"Oh," I say, Peeta's mother wasn't very nice to him. I hate imaging all the terrible things she did to him. It makes me sad. "Peeta, you don't have to-"

"I want to help," He motions for me to follow him to the back of the truck. He picked out a big tree. I hope it'll fit through my door. We take the tree out and somehow make it through the door. Then we carefully maneuver the tree through my living room until we find the right place for it. "It fits."

"It's beautiful." I smile. "Thank you so much."

"No problem," Peeta starts looking through my coat closet. "Where do you keep the decorations?"

"Oh, no Peeta." I protest. "You don't have to help me do everything. The hard part is done."

"I want to help you, Katniss." Peeta crosses his arms. "So either you tell me where you keep the decorations or I'll just have to search for them myself."

"Why do you want to help me?"

"What?" Peeta asks. "I want to help you!"

So we stay up until two in the morning decorating every inch of my house. Peeta doesn't complain at all. When we finally finish decorating, Peeta passes out on my couch. I plop down on the floor next to him and smile. This guy really is my best friend. He chose to wast six hours of his weekend to help me decorate for a holiday he doesn't even celebrate.

"Katniss?" Peeta says without opening his eyes.

"Yes?"

"Lay down," He scoots over and pats the spot next to him. So I lay down next to him and pull the blanket I keep on the top of the couch over us.

"Peeta?" I ask."Why did you choose to decorate the whole house with me?"

"Because," He takes a deep breath. "I'm in love with you." I get quiet. Peeta is in love with me. Is that really true? Or did I just imagine him saying it because I'm so tired? Do I want him to love me? I think I do. Peeta is handsome and the sweetest guy I've ever met. We've always been so close. Gale had always been jealous of Peeta, but I'd never understood why. Maybe Gale knew how Peeta felt. Maybe Gale could tell that something could happen between me and Peeta. Could it be that I've had feelings for Peeta this whole time? It's possible. "Are you going to kick me out of your house?" Peeta asks.

"No." I laugh.

"Well then," He says. "Would you like to maybe go out sometime? Like on a date?"

"Okay."

"Really?" Peeta sits up.

"Yeah," I yawn. "I'm so tired."

Peeta lays back down. "Go ahead and sleep. It's late." So I close my eyes and dream about new Christmas traditions.

 **Okay, so that was just a little one shot. I've been wanting to write a Christmas fanficton for years now, but I could never get the right plot. I had so much fun writing this that I decided to write another one and it should be coming out on Christmas Eve. I just got done with finals today, I passed all my classes! Anyway, have a great Christmas break.**


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